2015 Half Marathon Training: Week 4

July 21, 2015

Hey y’all! How was your weekend? I hope you survived Monday? I did. Barely. 😉

Last week’s training was splendid. I’m getting ready for a 5K trail race this coming weekend, so it’s been all about speed and leg turnover lately. I’m totally down with that because I love the track. (I think I’ve mentioned that before? Hmmm…)

I didn’t originally intend on running so much at the beginning of the week, but as you may recall from last week, I was planning on camping on Friday. I wasn’t so sure I would be getting miles in on Saturday or not. Therefore, I lumped together my mileage at the beginning of the week in case I needed to get 8 in on Friday morning before our trip. Unfortunately we ended up canceling our trip because the weather was supposed to be pretty nasty — did I mention the weather never turned on us? Yeah… We won’t go there…

Let’s see how the miles went!

Sunday — yoga

I discovered a core yoga series. I was really excited. Unlike the original core yoga I was doing for 30 minutes, this one only lasts 13-15 minutes. And it was hard! But after my stretching out yoga, the core yoga felt great. I look forward to doing more of this later.

Monday — 3 miles

Monday’s miles were easy. So chill and relaxed. I just ran and had a good time doing it. These are the runs that remind me that running is fun.

Feeling great on Monday!

Tuesday — 3.15 miles + strength

Tuesday was slower than Monday. I was definitely tired. My legs felt like lead. But the weather was so enjoyable that I forced myself to have a good time. And of course it worked, because who doesn’t have fun running when it’s nice weather?!

I added in some strength training on Tuesday as well. Did my lovely lower and upper body circuit, and generally kicked my own behind.

Wednesday — 4 miles

Wednesday was track day. I met Julie at our local track. Goal was to run 1 mile easy warm-up, 2 miles of cruise intervals, and then 1 mile easy cool-down. I completed the mission but boy were the middle miles tough. I was beat by the time we were done. I’m pretty sure Julie fared better because we were running at my pace, not hers, but the humidity gets to her more than it bothers me so it was a tough workout for her as well.

I also pulled off my toenail on Wednesday. Boom!

Track day!

Saturday — 7 miles

On Saturday I met up with Noemi for what was supposed to be 8 miles. Since we are both training for trail races, we decided to hit the trails and get our minds/bodies ready to go.

We checked the map, made a plan, and set off on our adventure. The location where we were running has a pretty steep incline within the first quarter mile on the road. I have no idea why, but since we were on the trail I kind of wrote it off and didn’t think we were going to encounter the steep grade. But we did. Surprise! Why do we always start our runs with these insane hills?! But you know what they say — what doesn’t hill you, makes you stronger! (No? I tried.)

Somewhere along the way, and within the first couple miles, we made the first of many wrong turns. We ended up on the road but quickly realized our mistake and headed back to the trail. We thought we were venturing in the right direction, and I think we were for a while. We were on these beautiful, quiet trails. It was refreshing and energizing. We came upon the edge of ravine and it was breathtaking. Of course we had to stop for a photo opp.

Straight down, say wha?

View across the valley.

Nature.

Obligatory long run selfie!

We started running again (we were actually looking for an old and forgotten chimney) but we took another wrong turn and ended up back on the road again. When we decided to turn back to the trail we saw a lone guy walking on the trails and of course decided he was going to kill us, so we opted to run back on the road for a while. Side note here, I’d like to make mention that I’m glad I’m not the only uber-paranoid female runner out there. Safety in numbers and all, and we had a cell phone with us, and we weren’t in any secluded area by any stretch of the imagination — but you never know!

After a little while on the road (very uncomfortable after running trails, by the way), we hopped back on the trails (yeah, we lost the murderer a while back) and ran through sloggy muddy yuck. Just when we didn’t think we could get more off track than we already were, we came upon a trail map. WOW! We were nowhere near where we thought we were! Yowza. But at least now we know for next time. 🙂

Huh? This ain’t where we’re supposed to be!

Old familiar road! There you are. 🙂

We made our way back to my car on much more familiar paths and trails. By the time we got to the car Noemi and I realized we were still way off mileage-wise. To make it an even 7 miles, we double backed for a little while. Everything happens for a reason, and I believe we were short on mileage because my leg was going to start acting up. Sure enough, around 6.5 miles, I could feel my IT band on my right leg starting to twinge a bit. I probably could have made it to 8 miles all together, but when we got to the car we decided we were both tired and ready to eat.

Another side note: trails take longer to run than roads. Therefore, one should pack enough food to get them through said run.

Noemi and I headed to Yours Truly for another phenomenal breakfast, and regaled our waitress with tales of the trail (and tried to convince her to join us next time!).

Another long run in the books!

My name is mud.

All in all, week 4 was a success. Coming up this week are more track and speed days, and my trail race on Saturday. I’m really looking forward to it. It’s going to be awesome. If you’re local to Cleveland and looking for a really fun race, I highly suggest the Race n Taste 5K Trail Race at Hiram House Camp. Hiram House Camp is near and dear to my heart, and the tasting part is going to be phenomenal. I bet Julie’s going to be jealous when she reads that Mitchell’s will be there… mmmmm… Come join me! Plus this is my first official race sponsorship as an RRCA certified running coach! I’m so excited. Click here for more info and to register.